The Cipher Falls
by Cakkuu
Summary: A Gift Given, A Curse Bestowed; Blood will Spill, And the Cipher shall Fall. Existence is Upside Down, But who will Reign Supreme?
1. Dimension 52

**The Cipher Falls**

 _Chapter 1 : Dimension 52_

The air in Dimension 52 wasn't getting any easier to breathe.

Ford never liked being in the said dimension. It reminded him so much of Bill, even after he died. The air was heavy, hard to breathe, suffocating. The cloudy (smokey?) sky was a dark shade of red and whenever the clouds part to reveal the supposed void of space, harsh, bright colours ranging from yellow to red shone through, mixed chaotically together, momentarily illuminating the hostile earth before disappearing once again behind the dark clouds.

It had been three years after Bill had been wiped out of existence. Dimension 52, or as he had called it, Dimension Zetta had changed a lot ever since and at the same time... It didn't. One thing he knew for sure was that he had earned a considerable amount of respect from the inhabitants of the dimension after being tagged as _"The Six Fingered Demon Slayer"_ after he had ended Bill's reign on Earth.

Earning respect, he had also gained new enemies. He was not fazed by this, as most of the ones who wanted him dead were outlaws of multiple dimensions and thus would be easily be captured and slash or executed if they were seen fifteen miles near Ford.

As for Dimension 52's version of Earth, Earth Zetta, it was surely so much different compared to Earth Alpha, his homeworld. Their customs were really... Barbaric, as Ford would describe it. Really, _really_ barbaric. He doubted that they had laws. Crimes raging here and there, violence in every household; there wasn't a day that passed by without a murder. It was their idea of "fun".

And yet, here Ford was, standing in one of the forests, exhausted. He had just finished his investigative session for this month with a couple of acquaintances and friends. It wasn't anything important. At least, not urgently important for him to stay in the realm for the next few months.

Ford was patiently waiting for his portal home to completely charge up. It usually took him five minutes or so to initialize the gateway back to his dimension. It wasn't that tricky anymore and it was a lot safer after he had reconstructed a smaller scale version of the inter-dimensional gateway back on Earth Alpha with a lot of improvements in both stability between the connection of the two worlds and the efficiency of the initialization of the portals. (At least it wouldn't take him a complete week to get the portal running.)

The portal should be fully operational by now… but it wasn't.

Ford placed his hands around his waist in annoyance. What was taking Stanley too long? He should've booted up the other Portal now. With a sigh of aggravation, Ford opened up his Multi-dimensional Communications Hub and attempted to contact Stan.

"Y'ellow," Stan answered the call as casually as he could. There was a hint of panic in his voice though and that wasn't a good sign at all.

"Stanley," Ford said in a sigh, "Did you forget how to boot the portal again? Or did you just forget that I'm coming home tonight?" There was a forced laughter from the other line followed by Stan clearing his throat.

"Well, uh…" Stan tried to look for the correct words. There was a faint crashing sound in the background, "There's been a, uh, how would you say it, a minor setback and I'm doing my best to—"

"Minor setback?" Ford was left dumbfounded. What kind of minor setback was he talking about? This could potentially ruin his travel back to Earth and delay his return for two hours!

Stan coughed. "Yeah, the twins are coming over today and I needed to fix up the shack and most of your stuff and _sciencey_ experiments."

Excitement, frustration and panic made Ford's heart race. Excited because Dipper and Mabel were finally back for the summer; frustrated and panicked because he would be, without of doubt, stuck in this other dimension for the next two hours.

"Don't worry," Stan's voice broke Ford's train of thought, "The portal's almost working, just a minute and fifteen seconds til – OW! Shit!" There was a sound of breaking glass proceeded by Stan reciting a book of profanity.

"Holy fuck," He said through closed teeth, "That's hot, fucking coffee. Oh no, I think I spilled some on… Son of a B—"

"OH GRUNKLE STAN!"

It was really amazing how loud Mabel's voice could be. Ford had to take his earpiece off as it emitted a high pitched ringing upon picking up the feedback from Mabel's scream. He hadn't even put it back on when he heard another scream from Mabel.

"HELP ME!"

Wait… that wasn't Mabel. Ford whirled around to face the source of the ruckus. He looked around, frantically, trying to search for the Zetta humanling that had plead for help.

It was entirely new to Ford's experience for someone from this dimension to ask for help. In fact, hopelessness was not something the inhabitants of _this_ Earth were accustomed to feeling, assuming they had emotions of course. But whoever had screamed sounded so urgent and seemed to be close to tears. Ford looked back at the portal, contemplating whether or not to come to the aid of whoever it was asking for it.

He heard the scream again and Ford resolved to leave the portal.

He ran through the forest, listening hard for the struggling yells of the person… Alien… zetta earthling. There was a loud crash to his left and he followed the sound.

The stifled sobs grew louder and Ford crouched low to avoid drawing attention to himself.

"U-uncle S-s-stephen, please s-stop!" The girl stammered, her lips trembled in fear. She staggered backwards.

The man smiled and lifted his hand up and thick coils of black smoke surrounded his arm. "Lily, please," he said, laughing, "if you only told me earlier then I would've killed you in your sleep!"

Ford bit his lip and took out his gun and aimed at the hand of the man, who he figured was called Stephen. He pulled the trigger and a bright blue, laser-like projectile pierced the man's hand. There was a loud scream.

Stephen faced Ford, a look of fury in his eyes. Ford recharged his gun and aimed again at Stephen. "Leave the girl alone," Ford commanded.

Stephen growled. "If I were you, outsider, I'd stay out of this." He returned his attention to the girl he called Lily. But Ford wasn't going to stay out of the fight. Whoever this Lily was, she was an _anomaly_ in this dimension. The only pure and sentient Zetta Earthling in the sea of heartless monsters.

Ford pulled the trigger once more and shot Stephen's leg. Stephen fell down to the ground and Ford leapt on him, trying to subdue him.

"You little bastard," Stephen hissed. "I said stay out of this!" Ford was shocked as Stephen easily threw him aside as if he was just trash. His head hit the tree trunk hard. Vision blurry and a loud ringing in his ears, Ford struggled to get up.

Stephen laughed, "Oh, so you're Stanford Pines, huh? The six fingered _freak_ who killed Bill?" He clapped his hands. "Congratulations on killing that one-eyed demon, you have my respect."

Ford looked at Stephen. He was bowing low. Ford heaved a sigh of relief. He thought he had to battle with him. "I wouldn't get all the credit for banishing Bill," Ford muttered.

"But there's one thing," Stephen mused, looking up at Ford with a smile from ear to ear. Ford raised his eyebrow. Stephen grinned, showing his sharp teeth, "I liked Bill."

In a flash he was pinned on the tree by Stephen, laughing maniacally. He clenched Ford's throat tighter, choking him. "How about I toy with your fears right now, hmm? I love nightmares!"

Ford squirmed and wriggled, frantically trying to break free from his grasp. He tried to look for the girl, but his surroundings were a mere void, a stretch of endless darkness, empty save for him and Stephen.

"Oh, this is interesting," Stephen mused, letting go of Ford. "It seems like you're still _afraid_ of Bill!"

Upon the mention of the demon's name, his surroundings morphed.

He was back, back at weirdmageddon. He looked around at the apocalyptic earth. It was just as horrible and dreading as he remembered. He looked back at Stephen but he was no longer there.

 _This is just an illusion,_ Ford told himself, attempting to calm himself down. _This isn't real. Bill is dead and he's not coming back. This is just a nightmare._

"OH, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE IN THIS NIGHTMARE FORDSIE!

Ford's blood ran cold. He knew that voice too well. No. It couldn't be...

"COME ON NOW SIXER. DID YOU REALLY THINK I'M DEAD?"

Clenching his hands into fists, he turned to face Bill. "You _are_ dead! I killed you!"

"MAYBE IN THE REAL WORLD I AM," Bill said, amused. He procured a glass of Margarita and took a sip. "BUT IN YOUR MIND I'LL _NEVER_ BE DEAD. I WILL ALWAYS EXIST IN YOUR HEAD, ALWAYS WATCHING, ALWAYS LISTENING, ALWAYS PLANNING AHEAD OF YOU. FACE IT SIXER, YOU'RE STUCK WITH ME FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND I'M GOING TO MAKE YOUR EVERY LIVING MOMENT A BLISSFUL TORTURE FOR ME TO ENJOY AND FOR YOU TO SUFFER."

Bill snapped his fingers. A bloodcurdling scream came from behind Ford and he spun on the spot only to see Mabel and Dipper hovering inches away from the pyre. Blood drained from his face. No. Not his family!

"SAY GOODBYE STANFORD, BECAUSE YOU'LL NEVER SEE THESE CHILDREN EVER AGAIN-!"

Everything around him flashed and glitched uncontrollably, changing from black and white, to coloured, to a sepia schemed world, to a landscape with its colours at negative before it faded into blackness again.

Another ear piercing yell followed by a crash then silence…

"Hey, m-mister," a soft voice whispered. Stanford's eyes flicked open. Lily was staring curiously at him. "A-are you alright?" He let out a strained moan while trying to sit up and placed a hand on his forehead.

"Where is he?" Ford asked, trying to gather his strength. "Where—?"

Lily whimpered and pointed at the unmoving Stephen a few feet from them. He was bleeding, a large bash on his head.

"I-it was an accident!" Lily said panicked, "You were freaking out and he w-was going to k-kill you so I…"

"Great Uncle Ford!" A voice called out from the woods. Lily tensed up and looked around frenetically. Ford patted Lily's shoulder in reassurance. He gave her a small smile. "Don't worry," he told her calmly, "It's Dipper. He's a friend."

"Where are you Great Uncle Ford?!" Dipper called out once more.

"I'm over here Dipper!" Ford replied. "Just stay where the portal is! We don't want you to get lost!" He faced Lily, "Can you find your way home from here?"

"I-I," She stammered, looking down at the ground, "I don't remember anything." She looked at Ford in the eyes, afraid. "Please d-don't leave me here!"

Ford frowned. She was really peculiar, this one. But he didn't go to such lengths just to leave her here. He sighed. "Come on." He held out his hand which she gladly took. "I'll take you to my dimension. It'll be more… accommodating for you, uh, Lily, was it?"

"Yeah," she replied quietly, "I think so, I mean, that's what he kept calling me."

The two walked back to the Portal, Dipper was standing there, worriedly looking around for Ford. When he spotted him, he gave him a huge grin and ran to embrace his grunkle. Lily, however, was far from being comfortable around him.

"So what happened?" Dipper inquired, "What took you so long? And who's she?"

"Not now Dipper," Ford dismissed his questions with a tone of urgency. "The portal is going to collapse any second and we need to go, NOW!"

With a nod, Dipper jumped in the Portal. The portal shuddered and Ford looked at Lily who was trembling in fear. "Hey," he whispered to her, squeezing her hand reassuringly, "It's alright."

"W-what'll happen if the portal collapses while we're inside."

"Well," Ford mumbled, "it's either we'll get squished between dimensions or. If, we're lucky, we'll end up in another dimension." Ford shook his head. "But that won't happen." He looked at the portal.

"We'll jump in together, alright?" Both their eyes met. Lily gave him a small nod. Ford took a sharp breath in. "On three. Ready?

"One. Two. Three!"


	2. Lily

**Chapter 2 : Lily**

"…Three!"

They were in the portal, falling through a pathway carved into space and time, connecting two different dimensions; an empty corridor whose walls were a fiery mix of blue and orange.

Lily was far too petrified to scream or flail or do anything but cling onto Ford's arm who was calmly droning on facts about how he built the portal.

"...then the underground facility was as good as new despite the fact it had been devoid of humans for more than a century."

Lily clenched on his arm tighter as the walls seemed to close in on them. She screwed her blue eyes shut and let out a quiet yelp. Ford seemed to tense up as well but beyond that he seemed unfazed.

"Oh, look, Lily," Ford told the girl calmly, "We're almost there."

She opened her eyes a bit and took a peek below here. It was a dark hole. Not dark as in the empty clutches of space, more like a barely lit room kind of dark.

They were spat out of the portal. Lily tumbled across the room along with Ford.

"Grunkle Ford!"

There was a rustle beside Lily but she kept her eyes shut. She didn't make any movement to get up or do anything. For quite a while she remained that way, listening to the multiple footsteps and the voices of worry from different people.

"Heyyo, kiddos," She heard Ford say while she heard footsteps running towards him. She curled up into a ball further, trying to retreat into nothingness.

Lily couldn't remember a thing and this was all too much for her to handle. A murderous uncle whom she had probably killed in self-defense, a man from another dimension who took her to wherever she was, a portal almost collapsing on them? Were all of these normal?

"Hey girl," a soothing voice said. "Are you dead?"

"Mabel!" Another voice hissed at the other. "That's rude. She's not yet dead!"

Lily felt a hand touch her shoulder. "Hey, I know you're awake," he told her. "Can you get up?"

Lily elected to pretend to not hear him and proceeded to hug her legs tighter. She suddenly felt the familiar touch of Ford's hand on her arm. "Hey, it's alright. You're safe here," He reassured her. "These people won't hurt you. Come on.

Lily reluctantly opened her eyes. She stared up at four figures who were all staring down at her. Their gazes made her fidget. She recognized Ford who smiled at her.

One of them looked like a... Feminine human around her teen years, probably fifteen. Lily wasn't sure what her gender was, (maybe she was a femme or a fatale? Genders from where she came from are weird even for her standards...) but she can only assume that she was a girl based on her outward curvy appearance. She had short brown hair that was shoulder length. She apparently wore large hoop rings on her ears and had this weird piece of cloth placed neatly on her hair.

The guy beside her was also around her age, a few inches taller. He (Lily assumed he was a he) had the girl's same brown hair and brown eyes. He had a red and blue flannel on top of a blue shirt. He also wore a… was that a pine tree etched on his hat? Hmm, weird. Just thinking about the word _pine tree_ felt weird. As if he was fond of saying that a long time ago.

Lily pushed the thought aside and continued to inspect the last man.

Well, all Lily could say was that he looked a _lot_ Ford only a bit more… gruffer. Twins, he thought. It could be the only explanation. Unless they were triplets, that would be disastrous. Three _is_ a disastrous number, and that was a fact to Lily.

"Uh," Lily said quietly, sitting up. They watched her contentedly. "Greetings," she mumbled. "I am, err, Lily."

The girl seemed entirely delighted. "GREETINGS TOO!" She had yelled before she offered her hand to Lily. She took her hand and Mabel proceeded to shaking it which was very weird. "I'm Mabel! And you look very beautiful!" She gestured to Lily's messy wavy blonde hair. Mabel narrowed her eyes on Lily's tattered pink dress. "We have to do something about _that_."

Lily looked at her state. She was a mess, her socks were ripped apart and one of her shoes was missing. She had bruises all over her.

"Do you wanna head upstairs," the boy said so suddenly that Lily squeaked. She was still a bit jumpy but she realized that he meant no harm. Ford gave Lily a small nod.

"Yeah," Lily whispered, "If it's not too much of a hassle."

"What? Hassle?" The guy laughed, "The only hassle there is the occasional eyeball bats that find themselves inside the shack."

Lily, Mabel, and the guy left the, uh, room… Wherever they were. Shortly they entered an elevator.

"Uh, I have a question," Lily piped up. The guy raised an eyebrow. "Where am I?"

"Oh," He said, before chuckling, "How could we be so rude! You're at the Mystery Shack. It's our home for the summer."

"M-mystery Shack," Lily repeated. "H-h-home."

"Do you always stutter?" Mabel inquired, "Is that an alien thing? St-s-stuttering? Also why do you look like a human. I thought Zetta inhabitants are monsters. Grunkle Ford said they were monsters. Are you originally a monster?"

Lily blinked rapidly at Mabel, trying to comprehend her questions. She looked down, processing what she had just said.

"Hey, you don't have to answer if you don't wanna," Mabel added, nudging her with her hips. "I was just curious."

"No," Lily told her, "I want to answer you. I'm just… composing myself." She smiled a bit. "Aliens don't typically stutter, there's just… _me_ who does." Lily played with her fingers. "And I _am_ a human, just from an alternate dimension. I'm not a monster. If I am, I'd be terrified of myself. No joke."

"Aww," Mabel exclaimed before squeezing her with her arms. "Too _precious_!"

The elevator doors opened. Mabel let go of Lily before the three of them stepped out of it. The guy led the way again. He seemed like an alpha.

"Uh, what did you do to me a while ago," Lily asked Mabel, "With those arms and squeezing me?"

"Oh my _gosh_ ," she gasped, horrified. "You don't know what a hug is?"

"A… Hug?" Lily looked at her arms and wrapped it around Mabel, "like this? What's it for?"

"Yeah! You're doing it right!" Mabel laughed and she _hugged_ Lily too. "And you give hugs to show _affection._ That you care for someone and want the best for them!"

Lily let go and looked down. Affection. What a peculiar concept. She liked it. She smiled at Mabel. "I'll remember that."

Mabel grinned. "Cool!" She paused for a moment and thought before snapping her fingers, "Be right back! I'll get you some new clothes!

They entered the gift shop and Mabel raced inside, leaving Lily with the guy. He smiled at her.

"I believe I haven't introduced myself," he said, a bit too formally than Lily expected. "The name's Dipper. Dipper Pines." He extended his hand just like Mabel did so Lily shook it. It was probably their norm to shake hands when they meet. But when their hands touched, Lily felt a familiar tingling sensation running down her arm. She immediately withdrew her hand and looked at Dipper then at her hand. It felt like this wasn't the first time she shook his hand. Then again, based on Dipper's confused expression, he wasn't sensing the familiarity of Lily, assuming they did meet a long time ago. Maybe she was just imagining things. Lily shrugged.

"Greetings Dipper," Lily said quietly, "I'm Lily."

"Lily," Dipper repeated, smiling. "Want to go upstairs? Mabel's probably knitting a sweater for you."

"Knitting?" Lily said a bit excitedly. She always wanted to learn how to knit. She nodded a bit enthusiastically at Dipper and he laughed. He led the way, climbing a flight of stairs to the attic. Lily was really eager to reach their destination but upon arriving at the entrance of their room in the attic, shivers were sent down Lily's spine when she saw the lone window to her right.

It was way too familiar to her however, she could not really put a finger as to why it did feel familiar. It was a red stained glass window, two diamonds lay horizontally on the top and bottom part of the window. The center was a symbol that she knew too well - the eye of providence.

Dipper broke Lily's train of thought when he placed a hand on her shoulder. "You alright?" He asked her, concerned. Lily shrugged in reply and pointed at the window.

"Oh, that?" Dipper laughed and sat on the window sill. Lily cringed at the ominous effect the window had casted on him. It wasn't because she was scared; looking at him made her head hurt. She diverted her gaze. "You heard of Bill, right?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. Stephen mentioned his name once but I don't think I know who Bill is."

"You're lucky you don't," Dipper said darkly. He shrugged. "Well, he's this triangle dream demon." He pointed at the window, "He's dead so you shouldn't really worry." Dipper stood up and walked to the door at the opposite side of the room. "C'mon."

Lily followed him and they both entered the small messy room. Mabel was on her bed, half-way through knitting a blue sweater with a lily flower as its design. "Heyyow!" Mabel greeted her, "I'm making you a sweater!" Lily smiled and went over to her. She sat on her bed and contentedly watched her crochet. She observed how the needles pulled the threads, the overlapping strands and the pattern they seem to have.

"C-can I try?" Lily asked timidly. Mabel put down her knitting needles, her eyes flashing in excitement. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before shoving the unfinished sweater and the needles to Lily.

"You must be educated in the art of knitting sweaters," Mabel whispered seriously with a hint of drama. She opened her eyes and she put her hands on her waist. " I shall teach you how to procure a sweater with only balls of yarn!"

Lily chuckled as she picked up the needles. "So, does it go like this?" Lily slowly mimicked Mabel's knitting pattern, the way he saw her do it. Mabel let out a quiet "woah".

"Are you sure this is your first time?" Mabel asked, watching Lily slowly pick up speed knitting as he got used to the wrist movement.

"Yeah," Lily said happily, "I just watched you do it."

Mabel grinned at Lily, apparently impressed. "Well, then," she mused, "you still have to learn a couple more stitch patterns and a few sweaters worth of experience to be a certified Knitting expert."

Lily nodded with a huge grin on her face. She looked around their room, at Dipper who was reading, then at Mabel. She liked it here. Maybe she'd stay for a while.

But what does a while mean if time is an illusion?


End file.
